New Encyclical

[Resurrexi]

Read the newest encyclical, [url="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html"][i]Caritas in veritate[/i][/url].

Edited July 7, 2009 by Resurrexi

[Resurrexi]

I espeically like this paragraph, which highlights the hermeneutic of continuity:

"The link between Populorum Progressio and the Second Vatican Council does not mean that Paul VI's social magisterium marked a break with that of previous Popes, because the Council constitutes a deeper exploration of this magisterium within the continuity of the Church's life [19]. In this sense, clarity is not served by certain abstract subdivisions of the Church's social doctrine, which apply categories to Papal social teaching that are extraneous to it. It is not a case of two typologies of social doctrine, one pre-conciliar and one post-conciliar, differing from one another: on the contrary, there is a single teaching, consistent and at the same time ever new[20]. It is one thing to draw attention to the particular characteristics of one Encyclical or another, of the teaching of one Pope or another, but quite another to lose sight of the coherence of the overall doctrinal corpus[21]. Coherence does not mean a closed system: on the contrary, it means dynamic faithfulness to a light received. The Church's social doctrine illuminates with an unchanging light the new problems that are constantly emerging[22]. This safeguards the permanent and historical character of the doctrinal “patrimony”[23] which, with its specific characteristics, is part and parcel of the Church's ever-living Tradition[24]. Social doctrine is built on the foundation handed on by the Apostles to the Fathers of the Church, and then received and further explored by the great Christian doctors. This doctrine points definitively to the New Man, to the “last Adam [who] became a life-giving spirit” (1 Cor 15:45), the principle of the charity that “never ends” (1 Cor 13:8). It is attested by the saints and by those who gave their lives for Christ our Saviour in the field of justice and peace. It is an expression of the prophetic task of the Supreme Pontiffs to give apostolic guidance to the Church of Christ and to discern the new demands of evangelization. For these reasons, Populorum Progressio, situated within the great current of Tradition, can still speak to us today." (Pope Benedict XVI, [i]Caritas in veritate[/i], 12)

[VoTeckam]

Yes! I agree Res. I think the reason we so often find that a parish focuses on either liturgical orthodoxy or social doctrine is because of the misunderstanding the Holy Father addresses in paragraph 12.

I doubt I will have time to read it all today at work so I probably won't have much to contribute until tomorrow. Good reading to the rest of you!

[kafka]

will read shortly

[kafka]

"I am aware of the ways in which charity has been and continues to be misconstrued and emptied of meaning, with the consequent risk of being misinterpreted, detached from ethical living and, in any event, undervalued."

~ some people think all they have to do is 'love' God and neighbor without obeying morals & ethics as if love and the obedience to God's commandments could possibly be divided.

[Lil Red]

[quote name='Resurrexi' post='1913380' date='Jul 7 2009, 06:18 AM']Read the newest encyclical, [url="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html"][i]Caritas in veritate[/i][/url].[/quote]
+J.M.J.+

[CatherineM]

I'm on summer vacation. I'm sure I'll get hit with it first thing in September.

[Brother Adam]

Thank you for posting this.

[CatherineM]

I really liked this part, "if human conception, gestation and birth are made artificial, if human embryos are sacrificed to research, the conscience of society ends up losing the concept of human ecology and, along with it, that of environmental ecology,"

[cappie]

Pope Benedict puts God at the heart of globalisation

7 July 2009

Who would have guessed that the greatest human influence on Caritas in Veritate, the new social encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI, would be Pope Paul VI? Admirers of the former Cardinal Ratzinger tend to be critics of Pope Paul, and it is hardly a secret that the current Pontiff has reservations about the wisdom of the liturgical changes introduced by his predecessor in 1970. Yet he has no reservations about the social teaching of "the great Pope Paul VI", as he calls him, as expounded in his 1967 Populorum Progressio. The new encyclical, "Charity in Truth", updates the message of Pope Paul, applying his insights to a globalised economy that could not have been envisaged 42 years ago. And, in updating it, Benedict XVI reinforces its central messages.

Pope Paul taught that "the whole Church, in all her being and acting - when she proclaims, when she celebrates, when she performs works of charity - is engaged in promoting human development". Caritas in Veritate recognises that patterns of development are now very different. The relation of governments to society has grown more complex: "The state finds itself having to address the limitations to its sovereignty imposed by the new context of international trade and finance, which is characterised by increasing mobility both of financial capital and means of production..."

We live, in short, in an era of globalisation in which the public authorities must review their role and powers. Yet the Pope absolutely rejects the notion that "the market" can be relied upon to correct injustice or fulfil human potential. The problem, as he sharply observes (characteristically eschewing "inclusive language"), is that "as society becomes ever more globalised, it makes us neighbours but does not make us brothers". Catholic social teaching has not changed its conviction that mankind must correct the malfunctions of the market. Caritas Veritate points towards ways of achieving this amid the prosperity, poverty and chaos of the 21st century, while continually warning us - as did Paul VI and John Paul II - that the primary capital to be safeguarded is the human person.

Pope Benedict deliberately transcends the man-made boundaries of Left and Right. All encyclicals do this to some extent, but Caritas in Veritate does so with particular subtlety. Economic liberals will be relieved that the Church finally recognises that the old model of the state as the main agent of economic justice is outdated; indeed, says the Pope, "the exclusively binary model of market-plus-state is corrosive of society". Today's crisis-hit international economic scene requires "a profoundly new way of understanding business enterprise" in which the operation of the market is harnessed and corrected by the operation of a Christian humanism that is by no means confined to the public sector. Other aspects of the encyclical that will appeal to the Right (for want of a better term) are its recognition that the United Nations is in desperate need of reform and a brief but quite startling reference to the human cost of mass migration. There is also an easily decoded reference to terrorism inspired by fundamentalism.

Yet few papal documents have been so unsparing in their criticism of the unthinking selfishness that has accompanied wealth creation since Pope Paul's day. There is a ringing call here for redistribution; for the strengthening of responsible trade unions, and for stronger international bodies to administer the social and economic justice that is an integral component of Christian charity. The goal must be the transformation of globalisation into communion - a formidably difficult task, it is true, but one that is made less daunting by the lessons contained in this formidable encyclical.


[url="http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/articles/a0000584a.shtml"]http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/articles/a0000584a.shtml[/url]

[Gregorius]

Haven't finished yet, but I liked what I have seen so far.

[Nihil Obstat]

Yikes, it's a long one. I don't like to read long things like that on a computer screen, so it shall have to wait until I can print it off.
(I've got a large stack of printed encyclicals for future reference anyway. )

[Resurrexi]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' post='1913840' date='Jul 7 2009, 06:22 PM']Yikes, it's a long one. I don't like to read long things like that on a computer screen, so it shall have to wait until I can print it off.
(I've got a large stack of printed encyclicals for future reference anyway. )[/quote]

You could probably buy it at your local Catholic bookstore for the same price as the paper and ink you would use printing it off yourself.

[Nihil Obstat]

I don't have a local Catholic bookstore. At least that I know about. There's a local mostly Christian bookstore, but I don't think they're specific enough to stock encyclicals. Couldn't hurt to check.

I get a 15% discount on printer paper, and 10% on ink.

[eagle_eye222001]

Probably too busy to read it, but maybe I'll get a chance later.


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